When life gave you lemons, you make lemonade is a popular mantra that young Brandon N. Andrew has literally crafted into his very own business. Photo: Provided

At 24-year-old, our Young Professional Brandon N. Andrew runs a pop-up beverage shop called ‘Brandini's Lemonade’ through collaborations with bars, festivals, private events and other initiatives. Photo: Provided

Brandini’s lemonades is a self-funded company with capital investments from savings and the products also come in several fruit flavours including passion fruit, peach, strawberry, raspberry and blueberry lemonade. Photo: Provided

The Business also carries well designed social media pages on platforms like Facebook and Instagram to connect with young tech-savvy users and others who might be interested in the product. Photo: Provided

Understanding Self

An Office Clerk by day at Coverdale Trust Services, Brandon is from the Pockwood Pond area of Tortola and is also an alumnus of Ebenezer Thomas Primary School, St Georges Primary School and the popular Elmore Stoutt High School where he graduated in 2012.

Outside of the lemonade business, he enjoys drumming, making beats in his past time and says that juggling different tasks has truly taught him the importance of time management in achieving goals.

“Find a positive message in every situation despite how negative it might be,” he said, noting that self-realization is something he had to sit and go through to understand that holding on to negative hurts the body, mind and soul.

“Stuff hurt me more in the end so I try to find the positive message or lesson and build on that,” he told Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) when questioned on what were some of his biggest life lessons to date.

Building a Business

 “I’m the owner of Brandini's Lemonade. We offer all-natural freshly squeezed lemonades,” he said proudly when asked about his business venture.

Brandini’s lemonades is a self-funded company with capital investments from savings and the products also come in several fruit flavours, including passion fruit, peach, strawberry, raspberry and blueberry lemonade.

“Every cup is made to order right in front of you. We don’t have a set location so we do pop up collars with different bars and clubs and we also do private events,” he said.

He said business is one of the major economic pillars in the Virgin Islands (VI), hence, he initially entered the business sphere out of curiosity to see the ins and out of how everything works in the business world.

The business also carries well designed social media pages on platforms like Facebook and Instagram to connect with young tech-savvy users and others who might be interested in the product.

Learning & Growing

While Brandon admitted that the business and career field he is in are not the ones he desired, he told VINO, “I always feel the information I take in will eventually become useful.”

He said marketing is his ultimate passion in terms of educational pursuit and noted that one challenge holding him back is due to high demand for his business products which ‘can sometimes be overwhelming’ he said.

“Honestly seeing everyone genuinely enjoy the drink and the process it goes through is enough for me,” Brandon told VINO when asked what keeps him focused on his business and passion.

He said all his friends believe in doing the things they love, and  “that’s the energy I want around me.”

“I would like to expand my business a bit more and use my marketing knowledge to help getting other business ideas off the ground,” he said remains the ultimate goal and he thanked his friends and family, for being his biggest inspiration.

Parting Advice

“First be honest with yourself and be realistic. Always strive to set yourself apart from the rest. People will only take you as seriously as you take yourself,” he told VINO while underscoring that his desire has always been to make it in life.

“If you really love doing it why not get paid doing it? That way it would never really feel like a job to you,” he said.

In a plea to leaders and policymakers in the Territory, Mr Andrew said, “I would love to see the youths and more so the creative ones getting a better shot and being seen and heard."